MR. OWEN. —This amiable mystifier had a meeting, at the
Institu- tion in Gray's Inn Road, on Wednesday, for the purpose, as the ad- vertisement stated, of considering the best means of establishing Equi- table Labour Exchanges. We give what the Morning Chronicle offers as a summary of the report submitted to the meeting- " It set out by stating the great inequalities of the different classes of society, and the deep distress of the productive classes, who, though creating the wealth of the whole country, created it for the benefit of others, enjoying but a very in- considerable and very inadequate portion of it themselves. In order to obviate this, the report proposed to establish equitable exchanges of labour for equal value of labour. The only difficulty anticipated by the Committee in the way of establishing these exchanges, was the want of money capital to supply the means of putting this mighty engine into action. The lowest amount required for this purpose was 2,0001.—a larger amount would be desirable. This sum they were unable to raise without the assistance of capitalists. The Committee had, therefore, prepared a plan, by means of which the money might be raised without allowing the capitalists to exercise an undue influence over the ex- changes. No money would be borrowed from those who would not subscribe to those regulations; and the Committee were happy to state, that they had already obtained subscriptions to the amount of 1,000/. The exchanges were to be made at the actual cost price of the material, with the value of the labour added to it. And though, in the first instance it might appear to the producer that his profits were diminished, yet, as he would obtain other commodities at the same rate be would in reality be a gainer. By these means, they would be enabled to do entirely without capital, but it was necessary in the first place to possess themselves of money in order to enable thees to do without its use."
We do not pretend to understand one word of this, but our readers may try it. The resolutions were all carried unanimously. A Mr. Savage (we do not know which of them) said-
" In an-undertaking like the present, it was of the utmost importance that all concerned in it should govern their conduct by the rules of justice in the strictest sense of the term, and so too should the governors of the Association direct theirs; as otherwise they would be no better than the miserable Kings by whom Europe was ruled."
This is grand. A Mr. O'Brien announced the intention of the Society- " By the legitimate means of fair trade, to diffuse [a nice word this] some of those great masses of wealth which only tended to debauch the minds of their present possessors. One single liver-coloured Nabob in Leadenhall Street, or one banker in that Jewish street near the Mansionhouse, had more wealth than all the agricultural labourers of England taken together. In making that ob- servation, was he to be understood as meaning to excite any indignation against individuals of that class?"
We shall not affirm that he does, but we advise Mr. Rothschild to keep a strict eye on the diffusers of wealth. There is no saying what they may take it into their beads to denominate the legitimate means of fair trade, in their zeal for the amelioration of society.
Miss Macaulay was present, and read a speech. We must give an- extract. She said-
" Long experience had convinced her that all the labours of man must be ineffectual till woman joined in them. • No man could be said to be in health when half his body was paralysed ; how then could the political body perform its functions, when half—and that, too, the better half—was in a state of in- activity'?"
We hope all is right here, but we cannot vouch for it ; these Co- operative folks are so deep.
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